"If beings knew, as I know, the results of giving & sharing, they would not eat without having given, nor would the stain of miserliness overcome their minds. Even if it were their last bite, their last mouthful, they would not eat without having shared." Iti 26

He turns his mind away from those phenomena, and having done so, inclines his mind to the property of deathlessness: 'This is peace, this is exquisite — the resolution of all fabrications; the relinquishment of all acquisitions; the ending of craving; dispassion; cessation; Unbinding.' (Jhana Sutta - Thanissaro Bhikkhu translation)

Dan74 wrote:Hitler was of course famous for his calm reasoned speeches to the German people, frequently citing Immanuel Kant in the best tradition of European Age of Reason thinkers. Right?

Last time I watched one of those speeches on youtube, I wondered how he got away with it. Without getting locked up I mean. Using such exaggerated language, talking about his love for the ordinary, common working man (hmm I doubt it), almost on the verge of tears, sometimes almost screaming with his arm flailing about. If that's 'calm and reasoned', I shudder to think of what 'raving lunacy' must look like

metta

Then the Blessed One, picking up a tiny bit of dust with the tip of his fingernail, said to the monk, "There isn't even this much form...feeling...perception...fabrications...consciousness that is constant, lasting, eternal, not subject to change, that will stay just as it is as long as eternity." (SN 22.97)

"The Doctrine of Original Sin is the only one with 3000 years of empirical evidence to back it up..."

- you can say that on a mainstream news network and not get laughed out of the studio for it? And she wasn't joking, right? 'Empirical evidence'?

America has given the world many admirable things, but Fox News is surely not one of them. 'God help us' as the Theists say...

metta.

Then the Blessed One, picking up a tiny bit of dust with the tip of his fingernail, said to the monk, "There isn't even this much form...feeling...perception...fabrications...consciousness that is constant, lasting, eternal, not subject to change, that will stay just as it is as long as eternity." (SN 22.97)

"No tree becomes rooted and sturdy unless many a wind assails it. For by its very tossing it tightens its grip and plants its roots more securely; the fragile trees are those that have grown in a sunny valley."